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Tradition is laziness.

Gustav Mahler

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Gustav Mahler
Age: 50 †
Born: 1860
Born: July 7
Died: 1911
Died: May 18
Classical Composer
Composer
Conductor
Musician
Mahler
Tradition
Laziness

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In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.
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God can only be comprehended as Love.
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Don't bother to look, I've composed all this already.
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What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
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Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
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But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me and this helps me again and again.
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An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
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Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.
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Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.
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I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life.
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Life's been nothing but paperwork.
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Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.
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I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.
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I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.
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I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.
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In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.
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It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.
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The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.
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When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.
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